How I Set Up Every Novel: A Scrivener Tutorial for Novelists
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- čas přidán 13. 07. 2024
- Just in time for your Camp NaNoWriMo set-up, my Scrivener tutorial! Featuring a full, step-by-step breakdown of the folders I add and how I set up my outline view, as well as a few tips and tricks that would have made my life easier if I'd known about them sooner.
I had planned to also include poetry, but this ended up being a lot longer than anticipated.
Stay tuned for a poetry version soon!
***Update: I am now a sales affiliate for Scrivener! If you purchase using this link, I'll receive a small commission. There's no additional charge to you: www.literatureandlatte.com/sc...
Thank you for supporting my channel!
Some people mentioned in this video, from whom I've learned much of what I know about Scrivener:
Abbie Emmons
/ @abbieemmons
Sofiya Pasternack
/ @sofiyapasternack
Chapters:
Intro 00:00
How I Set Up My Folders 00:26
How I Set Up My Outline 09:20
Tips & Tricks I Wish I'd Known 16:31
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Follow Me:
Instagram: / hhtahir
Twitter: / hhtahir
Website/Blog: hibatahir.com - Jak na to + styl
I've been using Scrivener for years, mostly for work related writing and never used more than about 10% of its functionality. Now I've retired I'm getting into a number of writing projects from family history to poetry to short and long form story writing. This one video has made a world of difference - I'll never be a published writer but at least I'll be amore efficient one. Many thanks
I'm so glad to hear it helped you, Peter!! Good luck to you on all your future writing, and feel free to check out the poetry version for more short-form and poetry-specific tips! Here it is: czcams.com/video/qWcAAI4Xvlg/video.html
Hiba, this is one of the best and most clear intros to Scrivener online. Thank you so much for taking the time to share. I’m kind of a Panser…but at my age it gets harder to keep track of everything. This will help.
Thank you, Peter! So glad to hear it was helpful!
I love seeing this. Scrivener has always been a bit daunting for me. You made setting up a custom structure seem so easy. Thank you.
Yay! Glad it helped you!
She is so organized in her set up. I am a new to writing and this software seems more user friendly than FD.
Thank you! I’ve been wanting to try FD.
Absolutely incredible amount of useful information and advice. Thank you so much!
Glad it was helpful! You're so welcome!
As a hardcore MS Word user, this video and your presentation convinced me to get Scrivner. Thank you for the professional presentation and for being so efficient.
I'm so glad to hear that, Vincent! I hope it serves you well-- feel free to come back with any troubleshooting needs!
Scrivener's the best!
agreed!
Thanks so much for making this!!! I’m really excited to use some of these tools
You're so welcome! Glad it was helpful!!
Extremely useful information. Thank you very much.
Glad you found it useful!
This was great. I think it has helped me overcome my fear of the Scrivener program that I've left unused for a half a year. Off to try again.
yay! Glad to hear it helped!
Thank you SO much. I'm new to Scrivener and found many very useful items in your video.
Sure! Glad to hear it!
Extremely useful... thanks for this set up tutorial
You’re welcome! Glad to hear it helped!
Very interesting and I'm very impressed with your understanding of the Scrivener software. I think I would find it difficult to make full use of such a structured approach but I recognise the utility.
Thank you!! I’ve used it to varying degrees of effectiveness for nearly a decade now, so I completely understand the hesitation. I think it’s important to find tools that work for you and your particular writing process, and to accept that they might change as your writing develops.
Thank you for sharing
Sure!
Very useful ideas. Thank you for sharing, Hiba. :)
So glad you found them useful!!
@@hhtahir I watched your video a second time, and I enjoyed it... a second time. 🙂
Thanks for the video. I was using Write It Now 5, but saw all the hype for Scrivener and plenty of videos. It seems to have a lot more features and I really like the "screen shot" so you don't loose material when editing. Thanks again, nice work! ***Edit...Darn it! I just saw the sales commission portion when I dropped down...just purchased Scrivener!***
I'm so glad it helped you! I hadn't heard of Write It Now, but it looks very similar to Scrivener? If you like the screenshot feature, check out my poetry and short fiction Scrivener tutorial for a few other tips & tricks (And no worries about the affiliate link!
@@hhtahir Thanks, I will check out the poetry and short fiction tutorials. The "in software" tutorial is soooo long. I just skipped it and dove in. Took me forever (2 hours today) to even figure out how to start typing after my import (which was confusing due to the formatting being all centered lol). Now that my chapters are created and the 3 completed ones (drafts) are imported, I can set down to work. Thanks again!
I don't know if anyone knows this, but you can use emojis as the icons for the folders and text in Scriveners (at least in Mac) Do as you would do to change the icon, but on the top of the drop down menu for the available icons, you can choose "Icon from text" and you can use any emoji.
I didn’t know that! Thanks for sharing!
Really good. Wonderful ideas. If you have a Plotting version that would be most interesting.❤
Thanks so much, and great suggestion! I’ll work on that soon!!
Done! Hope this helps! czcams.com/video/h0lgg2Yg3rM/video.htmlsi=o8m_ham2An1RQrj2
So helpful thank you so much for making this. Love from Bournemouth UK.
You're so welcome!
@hhtahir I see Sofiya haven't posted is a few years has see stopped her channel?
Thank you for replying. I'm a very new writer and your channel is so helpful.
You're right--- I only recently discovered her and didn't realize it's been so long since her last video. I've found her videos so useful. I hope she comes back. But I'm glad to hear my channel is helping you!!
@hhtahir I've been trying to use scrivener on my PC. I'm 64 years old and my eyes are rubbish lol I've recently got myself a MacBook so I'll be getting scribner on there I'll make sure I use your link
Excellent tutorial! I've been using it for years but never to its full utility.
Thank you! Happy to help!
Please do a video on plotting!
Done! Hope this helps! czcams.com/video/h0lgg2Yg3rM/video.htmlsi=o8m_ham2An1RQrj2
How you set up Scrivener reminds me of Abbie Emmons' set-up.
But it's a bit different.
Yours doesn't have the pre-write task list thingy at the top.
Overall, it looks pretty similar.
It may be useful to add some templates, like character templates, location templates and scene card templates.
Yes, I used Abbie's set-up when I started using Scrivener! That's why I mentioned her in the description. And I do mention some templates that I tend to add, though I use templates more often in poetry than in fiction.
How do you set the color for the 📄; I found S/thing called corkboard color has 3 settings. Thanks in advance
I explored changing color/adding background images to the composition mode in the poetry version of this video. Hope this helps!
czcams.com/video/qWcAAI4Xvlg/video.html
I'm on Windows and am having a difficult time trying to use the keywords title. I can't get the metadata into the column in the editor. I did what you said and have created the information, it just won't let me put it in. Thanks for this tutorial. It was really helpful.
Not sure how it works in Windows… I hope you were able to figure it out! Happy to help if you weren’t, though.
I don't get the step at 4:08 - Are you getting the same scene cards in these folders as in the first Acts folders? Or do you have them on scene cards viewing mode only in this folder so you don't have to switch between them? I'm not a regular Scrivener user. Seems harder to set up than the actual writing. lol
Also I don't see when you Copy and Paste the templates. Do you have another window opened with them that we don't see in the video? Or is is a shortcut somehow?
Oh no, I totally understand why that would be confusing without context. They're not the same. In the first section, they're the actual scenes within each act, so they form part of the draft when you compile the full manuscript. When I say "scene card" in the second section, I'm referring to Lisa Cron's use of scene cards in STORY GENIUS. They're basically just plotting notes for every scene, organized by act. As I draft each scene, I usually open scene cards in the toggle split so that I can see and reference the relevant scene card. You can also internally bookmark the relevant scene card for each scene so that it shows up in the inspector when you click on each scene in the draft. The initial set up is taxing, but ultimately very rewarding!
And I'm copying and pasting the templates from another Scrivener file I didn't show. I started with a completely blank file here because I like customizing everything, but all the writing project templates will probably have the character and setting templates already pre-loaded in their templates folders.
@@hhtahir Thank you! I am already dreading the day I get to, IF I get to, compile my manuscript as that is another beast altogether.
i slowed it down but still its too quick lol..Total newbie
Sorry! Let me know if you have specific questions- I’ll see if I can help.
I really don't want to be rude or anything, but I don't understand the purpose of this video if you just took everything from someone else's workflow and the default novel theme from scrivener but done manually instead of literally clicking one button and have everything set up. Why? 🤷🏾♂️ You like to waste time?
Lmaooo because “clicking one button” doesn’t give me my preferred set up... This is just me sharing my process, which is a compendium of numerous other CZcamsrs’ workflows 🤷🏻♀️
@@hhtahir you can just start with the default setup for novel provided by scrivener. It's basically 90-95% the same as yours, I'm sure you're aware of it but don't want to admit or you like to waste time setting it up yourself. Anyway, other than that - enjoyable video 😉 I subscribe
@theshisho Nope. The default novel setup is actually a lot better than mine because it’s optimized for compiling the final product. I just copy and paste each section into a word document. It gives me another opportunity to edit. Maybe I do love wasting time lmao. Thanks!
Ya know for a tutorial, it'd probably be a good idea to slow tf down so people can follow what you're doing step by step. Lol thanks for trying though.
Genuinely curious to know which part was too fast for you?